In survival MMO Dune: Awakening, the spice you harvest on Arrakis will play a huge role in crafting, the economy, and even the base taxes you pay to the emperor. But the famously expensive space drug can also muck with your mind, and while it doesn't sound like it'll transform you into a weird gross slug monster (like the guild navigators in Dune), it will still have an impact on your character when you're exposed to it.
Today Dune: Awakening's creative director Joel Bylos let a bit more information about the MMO's spice system trickle through his fingers. See what I did there? Like how Paul Atreides is always letting sand trickle through his fingers when he's thinkin' about Dune stuff? That's the mental image I was going for.
"If you stand around on a spice blow for too long without proper protection you start to inhale too much spice and it gets into your bloodstream," Bylos said today during the third Dune: Awakening Direct presentation. "And that can lead to certain effects on your character in the world and in the game."
Bylos didn't want to get too specific about those effects, but at least one of them sounds pretty intriguing.
"As the player's blood gets saturated with spice, you can imagine how abilities might be altered by being able to see just a little bit into the future," Bylos said, holding up his thumb and forefinger a few centimeters apart. "We have some of those effects in the game. I won't spoil too much of it, but it will have an impact on your abilities."
In the recent Dune movies, Paul Atreides was prescient, first in his dreams and then later when getting a contact high from spice while glumly moping around on Arrakis. How will prescience translate into an MMO filled with other players? I'm not sure, and Bylos unfortunately wouldn't explain further.
"The idea of these visions that Paul has, I think it's an interesting thing," he said. "We're definitely exploring this kind of idea in the game. What it is and what it means I'll leave for the players and their imagination, and hopefully one day they'll find out."
Luckily clairvoyance isn't the only ability in Dune: Awakening. We got a quick glimpse of a few others in the presentation, like an energy shield ability that lets the player set up a dart-proof deflective barrier they and their friends can crouch behind during combat. Another ability shown on a menu screen is called "Hunter-Seeker" and allows players to pilot those tiny remote-controlled needle-tipped drones, which feels like a cool skill for a stealth player to have.
Another skill is called "Battlefield Calculation," which scans an area and gives you information on enemy types, traps and turrets, and what kind of damage they do. There's also a flying knee strike that lets you dash toward enemies for a quick melee attack, useful against enemies whose shields would block ranged projectiles.
You can watch the entire presentation below. Dune: Awakening is planned for a release in early 2025.
